Amethyst

Amethyst is quartz with attitude — ordinary silica turned violet by traces of iron and a few million years of natural radiation. The colour runs from pale lilac to a depth approaching purple-black; the best of it looks lit from inside.

The Greeks named it amethystos — 'not drunk' — and carved drinking cups from it in the optimistic belief that the stone would keep the wine from working. Medieval bishops wore it for clarity of a different kind. By the time the great Brazilian and Uruguayan deposits were found, amethyst had spent two thousand years as the stone of the clear head.

The crystal tradition keeps it there. Amethyst is the classic companion for the third eye and crown chakras, paired with Pisces and Aquarius in the zodiac, and reached for, above all, around sleep and stillness. It is the most common answer to the question 'which stone should live on the bedside table?'

The tradition's quiet advice is to give the stone a role in a practice. Hold it for a moment in the morning while you name an intention for the day — rest, patience, an early night — and let it keep the note. At the end of a day that scattered the attention, it offers a beautiful, physical place for the attention to return to.

In the catalogue you'll find amethyst as tumbled stones, clusters and geodes, pendulums, jewellery and runes — each piece cut from natural stone, so no two share a shade.